OUSA Teaching Awards: Best Teacher, Best Inclusive

OUSA Teaching Awards: Best Teacher, Best Inclusiveness, Best Use of Humour

“Best facebook group, ever.” So say the words on the wall of the Tony Zaharic Fan Club. Elsewhere on the facebook fan page a student has written “Tony, upon just being informed of this page, turned red with embarrassment and expressed his desire to leave the room immediately.”

The love affair his students have with Biochemistry 192 lecturer Tony Zaharic continues undiminished this year as he is overwhelmingly voted OUSA’s Teacher of the Year for the third time since the Award’s inception in 2002.

Looking over the many students’ comments, Zaharic’s enduring popularity comes from his ability to communicate one of the university’s more difficult first year subjects in understandable form, to read the mood of his students and adjust his communication style accordingly, to treat all his students with equal respect, and to laugh at himself (a collision with a whiteboard is mentioned).

It comes as no surprise that such a lecturer has his own facebook fan page.

“For students, Tony ticks all the boxes” says OUSA President, Harriet Geoghegan, “he goes out of his way to engage his students, using every trick in the book, and can convey information in innovative ways.”

Tony is one of eleven lecturers who will be honoured at the OUSA Teaching Awards tonight. While he takes out the top award, Gill Rutherford (Inclusive Education lecturer – College of Education) wins the Most Inclusive Award, and Peter Dearden (Associate Professor, Biochemistry) the award for Best Use of Humour.

Gill, according to her nominees, challenges students’ ideas about disability and encourages them to have an open mind and question where their knowledge about disability comes from.

Peter’s students liken his lectures to a comedy show which “has the class in fits of laughter”. He brings all of his comedic talent to bear in his lectures, and tells many tall tales from his own life.

667 students nominated 283 separate lecturers for Teaching Awards, with this number being whittled down by a panel of OUSA Executive and staff into a 20 members list of finalists for a final vote. 1272 students voted for the twenty finalists.

“It was very difficult to whittle down 283 nominated lecturers into a top twenty” said OUSA President, Harriet Geoghegan, “the standard of lecturers on campus is very high – we were delighted to see so many being nominated by their appreciative students.”

ENDS

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